America's Drones Are Too Expensive for Ukraine

Ukraine has relied heavily on drones throughout its war against invading Russian forces, but many of those unmanned aircraft are no longer coming from the United States because of American drones' high cost.

The details of U.S. drones' shortcomings in the Ukraine war were detailed Wednesday in a published report. Along with being too expensive for Kyiv, American drones have not performed well against Russian defenses, according to the story in The Wall Street Journal.

Drones have become a valuable weapon for both sides during the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022. Military analysts have credited Ukrainian drone strikes for putting Russia on the defensive in the Crimea region, and drones from Kyiv have made it all the way to Moscow.

But after an initial supply of American drones was sent to Ukraine during the early days of the war, Kyiv has increasingly turned to drones from China. The Journal wrote that Kyiv has "found ways to get tens of thousands of drones," along with drone parts, from the communist nation, which has a close alliance with Russia.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Defense via email on Wednesday for comment.

"Many American commercial drones cost tens of thousands of dollars more each than a Chinese model," the Journal said, noting that Ukraine goes through roughly 10,000 drones a month.

Georgii Dubynskyi, the deputy minister of the agency in charge of Ukraine's drone program, told the newspaper that while his country wants to try out more American drones, they are "looking for cost-effective solutions."

Along with high price tags, American drones have been too easy for Russia's defenses to detect. Many U.S.-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been found to be "glitchy and hard to repair," the Journal said, which doesn't justify the price when cheaper Chinese alternatives have gotten the job done on the battlefield.

"The general reputation for every class of U.S. drone in Ukraine is that they don't work as well as other systems," Adam Bry, an executive for Skydio, a Silicon Valley company that outfitted Ukraine with drones, told the Journal.

Ukraine has also made great strides in breaking its dependence on drones from its allies by dramatically ramping up production of domestic UAVs and first-person-view drones, as well as unmanned surface vessels, commonly known as sea drones.

During a year-end press conference this past December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a goal of domestic drone production reaching 1 million units in 2024.

Last month, Ukrainian Strategic Industries Deputy Minister Hanna Hvozdiar indicated the nation is ahead of schedule. Speaking on local television, she said Kyiv now has the capacity to produce 150,000 drones every month.

"Ukraine is already well past the million mark in terms of production," Hvozdiar said.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.